http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=5450&cat=715
A pic of most (not all) the hammers i could put on the table and take a photo of. what do YOU have laying in the shop you could/should sell but are just holding onto for whatever?? Ya can't use them, why keep them??

you know unless its an extra one as soon as you sell it you will need it. or cant find the other one to use

Hey Richard, i sure could use a diagonal peen, if'n you have a spare;).

I take stuff like that to the guild meeting and put in Iron-in-the-hat the guild makes some money, somebody gets something new, and I get red of something I not using.

spares are cheap, Sam..........it's the shipping & handling charges that get ya....:)

Any extra tools can be run through the IFI auction or store. Two different set ups but still gets the word out to those that want good tools. Contact me and we can set it up.

Had a friend in IL who has passed away that used to sell a lot of tools tailgating at blacksmith conferences. Most hammer heads were marked at $3. Whenever anyone would try to talk him down on price he would tell em "the HOLE is worth a dollar! Let's see you make that hole for a dollar".

One thing I did unload a few years ago was all of my top and bottom swages and fullers. Do most of that work with spring tools and they were just taking up space. Figured any I might need in the future I could make. Kept one 3/4" swage I use at the anvil for rolling up candle cups and I have two swage blocks.

Now of course I have nooooooooo extra anything in my shop :D

There is no such a thing as extra stuff. I thought it was a sin to get rid of stuff, whether you use it or not.
What do you think all that extra room under tables and on tables is for??????

My rule is NEVER sell tools, period. I have sold a few things in the past that I thought I would never need. It never fails, one day I end up kicking myself. Right now I've got one shop I work out of, and another 12x16 building that stores tools that never get used. Even though I may think I'll never use some of them, it costs nothing to keep them.

Here's my collection of spare tongs:

No such a thing as spare----is there?

my problem or non problem is i keep upgrading .
start with a rivett forge end up building a better forge, what to do with the rivett forge .
i want to forge at night without lighting a fire so i build a michael porter type bottle forge . now i have a rivett forge , nc whisper baby{i got for a song} a handbuilt coal forge and my handbuilt gas forge.
start out with a h.f anvil end up with a 300 pound fisher and three others that went down the pike , but still have the hf and the fisher
i cant believe the stuff one can aquire in a little over a year
my dilemma is that after a while i forget what tools i have so i aquire more of the same .
i love tools but how do you STOP THIS MONSTER , meaning me the tool collector

thats alot of tongs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:o:o:o

good thing this is a hobby for me , becuase if it was a business i would be out of business .
never made a nickel on blacksmithing , except tools i have made and sold to blacksmiths
but i sure have a lot of tools , you would think i was a pro .
same goes for my woodworking tools , a cabinet maker would blush at my collection
however i don't have the skill just the tools .
as a machinist in a shop the owner of my shop would fire me if i spent that kind of time and energy on tools.
i could here him now ,
" chuck you are missing the point , we are here to make a profit not build a super shop"
and i would reply " ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh , i get it , it is a money thing "

i seen an ad on craigslist
blacksmith tools
hammers and THONGS
do any of you blacksmiths wear a thong , my wife gets sick at the thought of me wearing one .
perhaps a thong with a hammer holster .
could this be a new product line

Sell my extra tools? Sell My Extra Tools!? SELL MY EXTRA TOOLS?!?!?! But....but.... If I sold my extra tools, they might be bought by a (gasp) tool collector.... Then they'd end up sitting in some kind of display, not getting used, instead of sitting in my shop not getting used!
-Aaron @ the SCF

Aquireitis is a dirty disease and I know a few people with a severe enough case, that it is sure to be fatal at some point, then comes the dispersal auction.

I don't know for sure but I think my wife has more lipstick tubes than I have tools...and I've been collecting this stuff fo over 30 years. so how its not the same according to her

BUT!!!! you NEED at least oh six of everything in all the sizes and colors!
Finnr

I can readily identify with the *tool collector*, (I'm one myself!)
I once bought a large pair of tongs from a guy at the flea market for $5.
They're 'rail road track tongs! The kind two track workers would use to carry a section of track.
They won't fit anything else but sections of track.

No....they're not for sale.

You never know when they might come in handy!

Might want to move a whole bunch of *track* anvils someday...........

Tongs Thongs and Tool collecting...The collection of tools to the point of poverty goes back to the Greek Gods. One has only to Google pictures of Vulcan at the forge to see that, for a blacksmith and his family, clothing is optional. Here we see Venus and her children begging Vulcan for food , "if only you would sell that extra anvil from HF...." no wonder she ran off with Mars, also note, the passing down of the "tool gene" to the male offspring who is wielding his first tool in spite of his starvation.

a nice site for old shop pics A Gallery of Early Blacksmithing

It seems there is sufficient evidence presented here to formulate a theory about "Shop Gravity".......as more steel and tools are gathered into one shop, the additional metal mass increases the pull of gravity within the shop, thereby attracting even more steel and tools making an ever growing gravitational force which, in some cases, approaches the power of a Black Hole in that nothing ever escapes back out of the shop. Examples of this may be found in places like Virginia, Minnesota, and Texas.

:) :)


Mike Tanner

It seems there is sufficient evidence presented here to formulate a theory about "Shop Gravity".......as more steel and tools are gathered into one shop, the additional metal mass increases the pull of gravity within the shop, thereby attracting even more steel and tools making an ever growing gravitational force which, in some cases, approaches the power of a Black Hole in that nothing ever escapes back out of the shop. Examples of this may be found in places like Virginia, Minnesota, and Texas.

I think your own to something here...all that weight in the northern hemisphere no doubt has changed the angle of tilt of earth to the sun and has caused gobal warming

gravitational pull thats it, i knew the magnetic poles were changing now i know why
shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh be quiet or al gore and his senseless cronies will want to outlaw blacksmithing